Regenerative braking & other wheel improvement stuff

[IncongruousGoat]

Yes, yes, I know, more about the wheels. While I am enjoying the new 1.2 wheel physics and think that in a lot of ways, it's great, I feel the wheels act too much like magic electricity-to-lateral motion devices.You press forwards, the motors turn on, and you roll forwards. You stop pressing forwards, and you keep your momentum, only slowed by air resistance, while the motors stop consuming electricity. This only makes sense if the motor disengages from the axle whenever it isn't running (which is precisely the kind of over-complicated thing no spacecraft designer worth their salt would do). In my opinion, it would be much more interesting for the wheel motors to act like proper electric motors-i.e. whenever they aren't running, they apply torque opposite to the direction of wheel rotation and charge the battery (because DC motors can function as generators). Furthermore, the throttle should have an effect on wheels-it should decrease input voltage (or equivalent Kerbal term) to a percent of the maximum, allowing you to drive forwards at something other than your vehicle's maximum speed.

[Azimech]

There's a little flaw in your reasoning. When you stop pressing forward, it depends on the manufacturer and customer settings if a motor starts slowing down due to regenerative braking. Motors never disengage from the axle (or hub) and the only friction/drag besides air resistance there would be is due to bearing/tyre/motor housing turbulence, if applicable gearbox/differential.

I used to be a forklift truck driver and when my company switched from diesel I had a very heated debate with the supplier of the new electric wheelchair. In my case, the horrid thing had the setting which meant letting go of the throttle pedal meant immediate braking. I was driving outside on uneven terrain having to cope with potholes and bumps, very troublesome to keep you right foot straight. I couldn't care less if 90% of other drivers wanted a truck to slow down like a maniac when letting go of the pedal, I had 5 tons of concrete or steel on my forks needing to be delivered in one piece.

In my opinion, regenerative braking should be when you apply the brakes, never otherwise.

[IncongruousGoat]

3 hours ago, Azimech said:

There's a little flaw in your reasoning. When you stop pressing forward, it depends on the manufacturer and customer settings if a motor starts slowing down due to regenerative braking. Motors never disengage from the axle (or hub) and the only friction/drag besides air resistance there would be is due to bearing/tyre/motor housing turbulence, if applicable gearbox/differential.

I used to be a forklift truck driver and when my company switched from diesel I had a very heated debate with the supplier of the new electric wheelchair. In my case, the horrid thing had the setting which meant letting go of the throttle pedal meant immediate braking. I was driving outside on uneven terrain having to cope with potholes and bumps, very troublesome to keep you right foot straight. I couldn't care less if 90% of other drivers wanted a truck to slow down like a maniac when letting go of the pedal, I had 5 tons of concrete or steel on my forks needing to be delivered in one piece.

In my opinion, regenerative braking should be when you apply the brakes, never otherwise.

That's a good point. Manually adjusting provided voltage to ensure a stable coast would not be particularly fun, and it seems like the kind of thing that would be easy to forget or mess up, especially on bumpy terrain. I know Teslas have regenerative braking on by default, but on the other hand they are designed for flat tarmac, and not so much rough terrain.

Still, the way motors consume electric charge makes no sense. However the controls are done, motors should never be in a zero electric charge consumption/production state except. Either voltage is applied to generate enough torque to provide acceleration, or they're applying voltage to generate enough torque to maintain a velocity, or they're applying torque to decelerate the motor, or power is being generated through regenerative braking. The "coast" mode on a typical motor controller is really regenerative braking mode-it's just labeled coast because it decelerates slower thank "brake"-which applies voltage to decelerate the motor.

Although all of this would require serious changes to the way brakes and wheels work-including removal of the "brake torque" slider (unless there are physical brakes along with the regenerative ones, which makes everything even more confusing).

Perhaps regenerative braking isn't such a good idea for the stock game, simply by merit of being far too complicated to deal with. It's not like the stock game doesn't have its share of magic things.